Warsaw’s Kaleigh Speicher ripped a double and worked all seven innings in the circle as Warsaw beat Wawasee, 4-3, Wednesday in Syracuse. (Photos by Mike Deak)

SYRACUSE – Needing to find some kind of rhythm – anything – Warsaw found peace in chaos Wednesday afternoon.

After a turbulent start and a rocky ride, the Lady Tigers finally put away Wawasee, 4-3, in Northern Lakes Conference softball action. The win was much needed relief for a frustrated and tired Warsaw club.

“We had a lot better positive energy than we have had,” began Warsaw head coach Jim Speicher. “I’m not sure what to attribute to it because we didn’t play real well last night. We just challenged them to play through some adversity that we have had. We seem to wait for bad things to happen and I don’t think we did that tonight.”

Warsaw’s Sidney Hernandez slides in under the tag of Alli Ousley.

The Lady Tigers are in the midst of five games in five days, or playing every day this week for those counting. After losses at Memorial Monday night and at Columbia City last night, Speicher was hoping his team would find a spark. It did so right away with the first at-bat.

Kaleigh Speicher didn’t need much of a pep talk from dad to get things going for her team, cracking a double to lead off the game. Speicher would later come around to score on an RBI single from Ashley Ousley.

Speicher would drive in the second run for Warsaw on a fielder’s choice in the second inning, and as pitcher, got some needed run support when Sidney Hernandez roped a two-run single in the third inning.

Warsaw had several other chances in the game, but ran themselves into trouble twice making outs at third base.

Kara Dishman of Warsaw makes solid contact early in the ballgame.

“I thought both teams caught a few breaks and scored early and didn’t catch some breaks toward the end and didn’t score,” Speicher said. “It was a pretty even ball game I thought all the way through. Hence, you have a 4-3 ball game.”

Kylie Norris picked up the tough-luck loss, giving up just four hits, four walks and fanned five.

Wawasee put together two runs in the first inning and another in the third, but couldn’t solve Speicher after closing the score at 4-3 after a throwing error allowed Kylee Rostochak to score from second base.

Speicher finished her night with seven innings of eight-hit, one-walk ball with three strikeouts.

Wawasee would put runners on base in the final three innings, but had its finest chance to tie the game in the sixth. With runners on second and third with one out, a fly ball off the bat of Aly Anderson reached center field, but Wawasee head coach Hans Griepentrog decided not to test the arm of Ashley Ousley.

In what looked like saving grace for Wawasee one batter later turned into disaster as Norris struck out, but swung at a pitch in the dirt that skipped away from catcher Kayla Snider. Ashlynn Fisher, who opened the inning with a bunt single, charged down the line only to freeze as Snider picked up the ball and applied the tag.

Wawasee pitcher Kylie Norris allowed four runs and four hits while striking out five Warsaw batters.

“Just stupid mistakes there at third base in the sixth inning,” lamented Wawasee head coach Hans Griepentrog, laying out the series of events. “We should have gotten a run out of that.”

An Alli Oulsey single in the seventh was foiled as Warsaw’s Taylor Stiver atoned for an earlier error by turning a double play to end the game. Ousley scored Wawasee’s first run on an RBI single by Madi Anderson while Rostochak came home one batter later on a Paige Hlutke sacrifice fly.

“It was one of those things that makes softball so interesting,” stated Griepentrog. “You can start off hot and the pitcher, they may have called better pitches. Our girls get very antsy sometimes. Being young as they are, if they get a good hit, the next time they expect the same thing instead of trying to flip it somewhere.”

Warsaw (4-10, 4-4 NLC) will return home for games tomorrow against Fort Wayne Carroll in a make-up contest and then return to NLC play Friday hosting Goshen.

Wawasee (5-7, 2-5 NLC) will get back into NLC play Friday with a home matchup versus Elkhart Memorial.

The Wawasee JV continued to tattoo the ball, collecting 20 hits in a 14-8 win over Warsaw. Alexis Graber and Nicole Streby were both 4-5 at the plate, scoring two runs each. Stats for Warsaw were not provided.